Being
in Japan in two months has taught me that Japanese is difficult to learn. There
are many things that could be a part of that issue, but the main thing is that
there are people who speak in a different dialect then the dialect that I learn
in the classroom. The dialect that people speak in my area is referred to as “kansai-ben”
while the dialect that I learn is not just the generic Japanese, but the
dialect that is most commonly used in Tokyo.
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| Cartoonish statue of Hideyoshi and Onene at Kodaiji |
This would seem to be a problem,
but most of the time I do not notice the subtleties of kansai-ben. There is one
phrase and one grammar point of kansai-ben that I have learned while here. The
phrase is “めちゃ” or “mecha.” This word is just
a way of saying “very” or “really” in English.
The grammar point that I learned is ~hen. It is as far as I know just
the short-form negative (for those studying Japanese language) it replaces the
conjugation ~ない in use. I hear these phrased used every once in a
while, but not often. I have heard from my friends that there are professors
that will accidentally start speaking in kansai-ben and have to apologize,
because most students do not know how to speak the dialect.
Dialect
is used everywhere that I have experienced in the Kansai region. But, most of
the time I hear the standard dialect when someone is talking to me. I have
heard from my friends that there are professors that will accidentally start
speaking in kansai-ben and have to apologize, because most students do not know
how to speak the dialect. So, someone is speaking it. I have also heard it in
passing sometimes. This could be a form of code speak, and kansai-ben is mostly
used within the populace, and standard is used with foreigners. It is a
possibility.
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| Cherry tree at Kodaiji |
The
week before this past week, my Japanese professor came to Japan during fall
break to visit, so her, another student from Beloit, and me went to Kyoto and
visited Kodaiji Temple and Sanjusangendo. Kodaiji is heavily attributed with Toyotomi
Hideyoshi’s wife. And, Sanjusangendo is famous for the 1001 Buddha statues that
fill it. This temple was quite a site to take in. It will be hard to display
the temple as no pictures were allowed in the temple, but pictures could not do
justice to the grandeur of the temple. This week was midterm testing, and I
spent all week studying for all of my tests. I am currently ready for a day
off, but that is not going to happen. Saturday is the Nukiho Matsuri (or Rice
Harvest Festival) at Fushimi Inari Taisha so I will be there experiencing this festival.
So, until next time, sayonara.
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| Statues at Sanjusangendo (stock image) |
4 comments:
I’ve gotten the impression that Kansai-ben is often looked down upon in more professional settings, especially outside of the Kansai area. I heard that one time a professor here told a student off for using Kansai-ben during a college presentation (even though the subject of the presentation arguably made the use of the dialect appropriate). Another person from Kansai (I forget the specific place) I talked with said that people sometimes see her as being too aggressive if she starts speaking in the dialect instead of more standard Japanese. Dialects definitely have a lot of associations attached to them.
Have you found anything in particular to suggest the use of Kansai-ben as a code? I know it's happened in other parts of the world (Cockney comes to mind). (From Dylan)
@glassgourd Kansai-ben in my observation is often used as in casual speech instead of professional speech. Some of the words and phrases only seem to be in casual form, so it is not to surprising that Kansai-ben is looked down upon in professional situations. Of course my knowledge of Kansai-ben is very miniscule, so if there is a form of Kansai-ben that is used for non-casual speech, I do not know about it.
@Dylan The only code that I can figure out, is that it is used mostly for casual speech. My RAs here use Kansai-ben all the time. For an example, one time one of my RAs was running late and when she arrived at the Seminar House she was yelling "mecha gomen, mecha gomen!" Which means something under the lines of "I'm very sorry, very sorry." So, the RAs are comfortable using some Kansai-ben around us students.
Ah, I see. I recently encountered a case here of two students (jokingly) using their knowledge of similar Tohoku-ben to talk to each other without anyone else being about to understand what they were saying (everyone else has a remarkably hard time with Tohoku-ben, apparently). In other places local dialects have been used as a sort of "local's code", was wondering if you've seen that in Osaka.
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